


tomato juice in spring

by kanyewesevans



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Second year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:26:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27346561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanyewesevans/pseuds/kanyewesevans
Summary: He notices a hunched figure up ahead in front of a vending machine and pauses his movements. He recognizes the man’s uniform first, noting that it’s his own, then he notices the unruly black hair. Is that…? He walks a bit closer and the hunched figure collapses to the ground in one swift motion.
Relationships: Hakaze Kaoru/Sakuma Rei
Kudos: 24





	tomato juice in spring

**Author's Note:**

> so like i started writing this completely unaware there was a reikao week planned with second year as the first prompt dfskljhkldsfjh so uhh i guess i'm here now for that? hi

The end of the school year was drawing to a close, with finals just around the corner. Kaoru, of course, was slacking on his studies as much as he possibly could. It was a Friday, and he had decided to skip today and just do what his heart told him to do. That really only ended up with him wandering aimlessly from shop to shop, flirting here and there with the girls around, even buying a small gift for his sister (and his brother too, slightly reluctantly, but he saw it in the store and thought of him so it wasn’t like he was forced to even out the gifts). It’s still sunny out when he’s done with this little outing and frankly? He’s not quite ready to head home. He finds himself wandering a little more out of the way than he’s used to, spacing out and thinking about the date he has set up for tomorrow. She’s a cute girl from a school not too far away from Yumenosaki, and they plan to also just walk around shopping for a bit and then stop at a cafe for lunch, ahhh he’s really excited! It definitely helps that the girl is  _ very cute- _

He notices a hunched figure up ahead in front of a vending machine and pauses his movements. He recognizes the man’s uniform first, noting that it’s his own, then he notices the unruly black hair. Is that…? He walks a bit closer and the hunched figure collapses to the ground in one swift motion.

“Ah-” He jumps back, staring into the man’s face. He looks around the area to see if anyone else was around, not spotting anyone and sighing. He  _ should _ help him, what with him being here and all but. Should he be seen helping a man? He  _ is _ the leader of Undead though...and Kaoru is  _ technically _ a member of that unit now, even if Rei hasn’t been around enough to meet up. He’d been around more the past month or so but Kaoru has also done his share of skipping meetings so he can’t really say how active Rei was being .He  _ should _ help in case Rei learns of this and decides to take out any revenge on the livehouse...they’re  _ also _ technically friends from how often he does go to the livehouse. Ahh there’s so many reasons  _ to _ help but at the same time...He hesitates a little longer than he should, then notices a red liquid spreading across the sidewalk. “Oh shit-” He starts to half-run over, now worried that the vampire had hit his head somehow. “Sakuma-san?” He squats down next to him, the smell of tomato juice filling his senses. He looks down to the liquid again, then follows where its coming from to find an opened can of the stuff that had fallen from Rei’s hands. He quickly relaxed and sighed, not quite sure if it’s in annoyance or relief. The vampire has been prone to fainting like this quite a bit recently, so he should’ve guessed. He tries first to shake him awake. “Sakuma-san, this is no place to be taking a nap.”

Rei’s eyes open slightly, looking up to Kaoru’s face blearily. “Ha...kaze…” He breathes out, then passes out again. Wuh-oh!

Kaoru starts to shake him again. “Hey hey hey, get up, you can’t be sleeping on the sidewalk.” This time, he doesn’t get the same result and Rei stays passed out on the floor. Well this is just great. He doesn’t even know where to begin with him...Ah! He can try calling one of Rei’s family members through his phone! He starts to dig into Rei’s pockets, but... “Does this guy seriously not have a cell phone? What the hell?” He stands up, looking down at him and  _ trying _ to think of a solution to this problem. He has no clue where he lives, he has  _ no _ real way of figuring out how to contact his family, he can’t really bring him back to his own place because Kaoru doesn’t actually know where they are currently…Should he call an ambulance? That seems a bit extreme...

Out of the corner of his eye, he spots a familiar head of red hair walking on the opposite sidewalk and beams. “Isara-kun~!” He calls out, waving the boy over. Mao is more knowledgeable about things, and if he remembers correctly, he’s friends with Rei’s brother so that  _ definitely _ helps him! Mao looks over without breaking his stride, but does stop moving when he spots Rei on the ground and starts to cross the street in a hurry.

“Oh jeez...Again?” He approaches the two and stands across from Kaoru on the other side of Rei.

“Again?” Kaoru looks down, Rei collapses from time to time at school from what he’s seen but the way Mao words it makes it seem like he’s used to seeing this.

Mao sighs, crouching down to try and shake him awake as well. “He’s been collapsing a lot on the way home since he stopped traveling.” He looks up to Kaoru. “...You don’t live around here, what are you doing over here?”

“Ah, well…” He can’t just tell Mao he was skipping today. “I was kind of mindlessly wandering on the way home and ended up taking a wrong turn.” Not a total lie. “Ended up watching him pass out.”

The boy eyes him carefully, then looks back to Rei. “We don’t live too far from here, can you help me carry him back home? It’d be nice to have someone about the same height as him to help out.” He returns his gaze to Kaoru.

Ahhh…what a situation he has gotten himself into. He  _ could _ say no and leave the poor boy to deal with his senior, he  _ could _ make up an excuse that he  _ needs _ to go home as soon as possible so he can get out of this, but  _ should _ he? He looks between Rei and Mao, then sighs. “Yeah, yeah I can help out.”

“Great, thanks Hakaze-senpai.” Mao smiles at him for a second, then directs his attention to Rei, moving to start pulling him up into a sitting position. “If you could take one shoulder and I’ll take the other?” Kaoru nods, heading to the other side to start lifting Rei up. “And...up we go!” Mao starts to lift as well, and the two of them manage to get him to a draggable height.

“He’s weirdly light.” He assumed that someone like Rei, who has a considerable strength on stage and around the school would be somewhat heavier, but he’s got the weight of someone like Mao almost.

“Yeah, helps when I have to carry him back solo.” Mao starts to walk, Kaoru following just a few steps behind him so not to drop Rei but also so he can be properly lead in the right direction.

“Do you live near the Sakumas? You’re friends with the younger brother, right?” Kaoru decides to start up a little bit of small talk, just so it’s not an awkward walk back to the household.

Mao hums. “Next-door neighbors since I was a kid. Ritsu always had a liking for me haha.” He looks over to Kaoru. “You’re in Sakuma-senpai’s new unit, right?”

Kaoru frowned a bit. “I guess, there’s not much activity with it right now though.” At least he assumes that’s the reason that he’s getting away with skipping every single meeting.

“I guess that’s understandable, might as well just wait til the next semester to really pump things up. From what Ritsu says, Sakuma-senpai has been so busy that he hardly even has time at home. I can’t imagine what Deadmanz was like for him always being away from the school. Lately I hardly see him leave the house.” Mao offers a smile to him. “Do you know him well? I don’t really see you around here.”

“Ah- no.” He thinks again to his earlier fight with himself to simply check on Rei. “I see him a lot at the live house, he’s a great client, but really that’s the extent of my relationship with him.” He cringed slightly to himself at the word ‘relationship.’ He’s also underexaggerating his closeness to Rei simply for his own sake, but Mao doesn’t need to know that. “I really did just wander onto this street on accident.” That much at least wasn’t a lie.

Mao nodded, taking a turn down the next street. “I don’t know that Sakuma-senpai has too many friends, so I was just curious.” That statement alone puts a wrench in Kaoru’s guts. Perhaps he should start claiming the guy as his friend, if only to make him seem less lonely.

Kaoru turns with Mao, taking a second to look around the neighborhood as he walks. “I suppose it makes sense after all that went down at school involving him.” He says this mainly to himself. He was a simple bystander to the whole “war” thing, his own livehouse was used for it here and there which was a tad bit annoying but it brought in some money. Mao hums again, not really expanding on the comment. Which is fair, honestly. With being so close to the Sakumas, surely Mao has had his fair fill of the war.

They walk in silence after that, only making another turn before they were on their street and Rei slowly started to come to again, groaning as he tried to open his eyes. Both men pause walking, looking to the vampire. He squints, trying to move a hand to his face when he nearly falls from the action.

“Whoa!” Kaoru catches his arm again, pulling Rei back up to his feet, the vampire shocked quiet at the almost fall. “Hey, don’t scare us like that.”

“Sakuma-senpai, are you alright?” Mao leans over a tad to get a look at Rei’s face. “You’re still a bit pale…”

Rei stayed quiet for a moment longer, brow furrowed as he took in his surroundings and self. He eventually let out a sigh. “My apologies for havin’ you both do this.” He gazed at the ground, trying to settle himself on his feet without wobbling. “I see my attempts to replenish myself before fainting were in vain.” He notes the juice stains on his clothes and frowns. What a pain it’ll be to clean that.

Mao pat his back, helping him steady himself. “Don’t worry about it, I’m just glad that we found you when we did.” Kaoru followed suit, letting Rei stand on his own, at least until Rei started to lean against him again. He froze at the action, not really knowing how to respond.

Rei’s eyelids fell again. “I don’t have the strength to stand quite yet, my apologies again.”

Kaoru laughed a bit, not really meaning to sound rude but more out of...anxiety? Worry? “Don’t worry about it…” He pulled Rei’s arm around him again to help carry him again, worried he’ll fall without that extra support. “We’re close so I can help you walk the rest of the way if that works~?” Rei rested his head against Kaoru’s, angling in closer to his neck. That’s a bit  _ too _ close for comfort but it’d be a bit odd to point it out in front of Mao right now.

“That is fine, Hakaze-kun. Thank you very much.” He mumbled. Kaoru wrapped his arm around Rei again, a little more self conscious now that the man is awake but at least people will understand that this is the only way he can help…?

“Are we ready to get going again? We’re not too far at all, Sakuma-senpai.” Mao smiled and waited for Rei’s confirmation before walking again, leaving the helping to Kaoru now that Rei is conscious again. He’ll help again if Rei passes out again, but hopefully he can hold out until they reach the house.

Kaoru follows suit, slower though now that he has to support Rei’s weight as the both of them walk. Rei’s pretty steady, though he seems to lag more than one usually would. The walk to the house wasn’t that bad, however, and they arrive in one piece without Rei collapsing on them again. Rei stuck his free hand into his pocket, digging out the keys to unlock the door. He does manage to pull them out, but they immediately fall to the ground as his grasp on them loosened. He utters a curse, starting to try and lean down when Mao grabs the keys from the ground instead, starting to unlock the door for him.

“You didn’ need to do that, but thank you, Isara-kun.” Rei smiles weakly as the door opens and Mao hands the keys back to Rei.

“Of course, Sakuma-senpai.” He returns the smile, pushing the door open. “Are you good to walk in on your own?”

Rei shook his head, leaning his head against Kaoru’s once more. “Unfortunately, my answer is no. Unless you want to hang out with Ritsu, you can head on home, Isara-kun~ I can have Hakaze-kun help me from here.”

“Eh!? Why me? Isara-kun is more familiar with your house~?” Kaoru went wide-eyed, and he’d jump away if he knew Rei could stand on his own but he can’t bring himself to just let the guy crash to the ground again.

Rei turn his face towards Kaoru’s, Kaoru immediately thinking that this is  _ way _ too close for their faces to be and he hopes no one else he knows sees the two of them like this. “Hakaze-kun is in Undead now, you’re gonna have to learn how to take care of me like Puppy and Adonis-kun does~” He gives him a lazy grin, fangs just barely visible, it makes Kaoru fluster more than he should.

Mao, on the other hand, nods and crosses his arms, already walking away to go next door. “Makes sense to me. Take care of him, Hakaze-senpai!”

“Hah?!” He looks between Rei, who is still  _ too _ close to his face, and Mao as he walks away. “I’m not a babysitter~!? Besides, you’re older than me? You don’t need to be taken care of?” He still doesn’t have the heart to push him off, but Rei moves to cling to Kaoru from behind, wrapping his arms around Kaoru’s neck a little  _ too _ intimately. “Surely you can walk to your room or whatever on your own?”

“I cannot, I’ll simply fall on my way and stay there until one of my parents come home, and I’d rather not have ‘em find me like that~ It’s quite a pain to hear them scold me for it.” Rei pouted, putting his head against Kaoru’s back. “Pleeeaaase Hakaze-kun? This old man’s body is falling apart and needs help from his friends~”

“Huh? You’re not an old man, you’re literally only a year older than me?” He frowns. If he really will just collapse somewhere without help though, he would feel bad leaving him like that. “Fine. But just this once, okay? I shouldn’t have to be responsible for you like this.”

Rei smiled again, starting to kick the backs of Kaoru’s feet to get him to start moving. “Thank youuuu Hakaze-kun, I really appreciate it~!”

Kaoru sighed, walking into the house with Rei letting himself practically drag behind him. He shut the door behind them, already positive this won’t be the last time Rei makes him carry him like this.

**Author's Note:**

> i woulda kept going but then this would've been longer than it really should be and drag on FOREVER so i cut it off you get to decide what happens next  
> i'm @kanyewesevans or @makahatsune on twitter um it's been reikao hours again despite my fixation on project sekai


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